The present invention relates to a novel and useful method for writing text using a keyboard.
Writing of human language has allowed the conveying of human thoughts and feelings, often expressed through speech, in a medium which is durable and transportable. That is to say, writings memorialize such thoughts and feelings.
Throughout history, writings have been used to keep accounts and record historical events. The earliest writings involve markings on physical objects, the tying of knots of various lengths and colors, stringing of beads, and the like.
Modern writing usually entails the use of a marking device on a surface such as a tablet or paper. Although modern writing techniques permit the rapid recording of speech, the speed of spoken language is normally much faster than the speed of conventional writing techniques.
Shorthand has been successfully used to record the spoken word, although special skills are required to transform spoken language into shorthand writing and to then transfer the shorthand writing into recognizable language equivalents. Also, stenographic methods using keyboards and word transcription systems have been used to record speech in courtrooms, governmental hearings, and the like. There still remains a problem of writing speech in various languages at a high transcription rate.
In the past, many devices and methods have been proposed which employ key strokes in order to record or memorialize speech. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,279 describes a typewriter which groups the vowel and consonant keys in a certain manner to increase speed of transcription. All key are pressed by the fingers of the user.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,858,170, RE. 33,337, and 6,041,292 describe stenographic transcribing methods using peculiar arrangements of vowels and consonants employing conventional keyboards to produce a document.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,835,368, 2,923,393, 3,225,883, and 4,765,764 show stenographic keyboards and machines which allow the simultaneous pressing of keys with the fingers of the user to generate consonant and vowel signals.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,865 shows a stenographic typewriter employing a mnemonic key in combination with conventional keys that are all pressed by the fingers of the users alone or in combination.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,108,660 illustrates a shorthand typewriting machine that employs keys, each of which represents multiple numbers and letters. All the keys are intended to be pressed by the fingers of the user.
A method for writing text using a transcription keyboard employing fingers and the frontal and/or side portions of the palm (palm regions) of the hand would be a notable advance in the field of word transcription.